Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Agency (EFSA) is to investigate human health risks caused by the contaminant ethyl carbamate in all alcoholic drinks, focusing particularly on its presence in stone fruit brandies. The chemical can naturally occur during fermentation, but a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) expert committee has concluded ethyl carbamate is "genotoxic and is a multisite carcinogen" in all animals, including humans.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

FUEL reprocessing, inspection schedules, civilian/military separation and unilateral moratoriums versus bilateral commitments: the list of hurdles potentially hindering the Indo-American civilian nuclear cooperation deal, pending ratification by the United States Congress, is long. Varying interpretations and last minute amendments in the deal have shaken the Indian nuclear establishment and polarised political parties, problems that could derail the whole process.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADA, in alliance with Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, has successfully scuppered plans to place chrysotile asbestos on the ‘watch list’ of the United Nations’ Rotterdam Convention, a move that would have allowed importing countries to insist on prior consent before admitting any cargoes of this mineral.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

"REFINERY Process Outsourcing" or simply RPO is an exciting buzzword in the otherwise hard-pressed Indian petroleum industry, as the term represents newly found and highly profitable venture of operating refineries to fulfil surging international demand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States is coming under pressure at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over its refusal of a licence allowing the registration of the contested Havana Club rum trademark to be renewed. Washington has already lost a WTO disputes case over the issue, with a panel declaring illegal clauses in its Omnibus Appropriations Act that prevent the registration of trademarks expropriated in the Cuban revolution after 1959.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Las Vegas

LOCAL authorities in the UK are dipping their toes into the waters of improved environmental health in pubs and restaurants by publicising results of inspections in local papers. And for inspiration on tactics, they could do no better than look at the United States, where EHOs have named and shamed dirty restaurateurs for decades.…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

THE RESUMPTION of war in Sri Lanka is bad news. Period. But, ironically, there have been some benefits. One of these is a concentrating of the mind amongst law enforcement officials within Sri Lanka and their counterparts abroad into tracking down and stopping both terrorist financing and money laundering.…

BY DINAH GARDNER, in Beijing

CHINA is talking tough over the launch of a World Trade Organisation (WTO) case over its levying of tariffs on imported auto parts, and analysts expect Beijing to follow this up at the WTO before even considering compromise.…

BY LIZ HALL

SIX years ago, government representatives from nine South American countries gathered in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to sign a document of great importance to those concerned with fighting money-laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF).

On December 8, 2000, representatives of the governments of the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, signed the Founding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formally establishing GAFISUD, a regional body modelled on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).…

BY ALAN OSBORN

AS befits its wider membership and longer history, Interpol is better known internationally than Europol though it has fewer staff and a smaller budget. But the similarities between the two organisations are more important than the differences. Neither is a hands-on police force.…